By IANS,
Hyderabad : Further mounting pressure on the Maoists, the Andhra Pradesh government Thursday raised the reward for information leading to the arrest of rebels by nearly 20 percent.
The government issued an order, raising the reward on arrests of top leaders to Rs.1.2 million while the same on lower-rank cadres has been hiked to Rs.100,000.
The reward on the state committee members of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) is now Rs.800,000 and on zonal committee members Rs.600,000.
Claiming that the Maoist movement has suffered huge losses, the government order said the number of armed cadres has come down by 746 since last year. According to the latest list, there are only 474 armed cadres in the state.
The list released by police last year had names of 1,133 guerrillas. Police officials said 83 Maoists were gunned down, 71 were arrested, 258 surrendered, 66 distanced themselves from the movement while there is no information on 196 guerillas. The list included 87 new names.
The reward on the Maoists killed during last one year was also enhanced to provide more money to informants and the policemen who take part in the operations.
The southern state has been a traditional stronghold of Maoists. More than 6,000 people have been killed in the Maoist violence since 1969.
Andhra Pradesh was recently dropped as a Maoist focus state by central authorities. Only Khammam district was identified as focus area as it borders Chhattisgarh, one of the worst hit states.